ITEXPO Las Vegas 2014 Wrap-Up

What a productive and inspiring week our Content Boost team just experienced at TMC’s ITEXPO 2014 in Las Vegas—the largest and longest-running B2B trade show, and your source for business technology innovation and trends. We were thrilled to be there and experience the scope of event offerings—from networking with leaders from multiple industries to gleaning the knowledge shared by executives from AARP, American Cancer Society, AT&T, iRobot, Schmooze and others. We hope you were there with us last week to gather insights into the information and communication technology market, attend educational workshops and hear all of the exciting keynote speakers.

Content Boost was on-site to share its knowledge about the necessity of content marketing for all brands in today’s customer-centric world. Our special keynote panel featured speakers from a variety of companies addressing the specificities of content marketing. And, for the first time in the history of the event, our team led 30-minute workshops on such topics as “Getting the Boss to Say ‘Yes’ to Content Marketing.”

We were also there to meet our clients face to face and hear their compelling company stories. Our editors came armed to learn about their unique corporate tales and core competencies. If you weren’t able to attend this exciting event, here is a wrap-up of what you missed, including some of the conference’s valuable take-aways:

Workshop Sessions

Presented by our very own Director of Content Marketing Carrie Majewski, three half-hour workshops were geared toward educating attendees on the necessity of content marketing to drive profits and bring in qualified leads. Attendees were provided a crash-course on the core pillars of content marketing. Here are three of Majewski’s key take-aways from the sessions:

Focus on crafting an integrated strategy, one that marries several marketing vehicles and tactics together (think blogging, email marketing and social media) for optimal results.

Take a good look at your target audience before selecting a social media platform. Where are your potential and existing customers most likely to receive your message: on Twitter, Facebook or another social medium?

Push the envelope and think out of the box to reach your full potential. Keep current with content marketing trends: Subscribe to industry newsletters, join the social conversations and bookmark relevant blogs.

Panel Discussion

Content Boost’s Allison Boccamazzo, managing content producer, explained how to go about crafting a best-of-class social media platform in a panel discussion titled “Social Media for the Enterprise 101: Back to the Basics.” Boccamazzo gave advice to the crowded room on how to ensure businesses use the proper social media platform to cater to different buyer personas. She shared, for example, how the use of Facebook by teens has actually dropped by 25 percent from 2011 to 2014 and, at the same time, has grown over the same period by 80 percent for those aged 55-plus. She also dove into existing social media networks and why enterprises must take advantage of them to meet ongoing business demands.

Content Boost’s Keynote Panel Discussion

This talented panel of four content marketing experts—Lauralie Lee Ezra, founder and CEO, Crowd Siren; Garry Foisy, senior director of marketing, Atrion; Lance Fried, senior VP of social and mobile applications, Five9; and Carrie Majewski, director of content marketing, Content Boost—tackled subjects ranging from brand image to the best content delivery vehicles. Ezra helped to define content marketing for the crowd stating that it’s “the solution for controlling your message and making sure that what your customers find is what you want them to find.”

Majewski stressed that today’s consumers don’t want to be talked at anymore. “They want to be talked to,” she insisted. All four panelists agreed that brand consistency is the primary requirement for successful marketing content. The room was enthusiastically lit up and buzzing with note-taking and chatter from this year’s record crowd. Industry thought leaders dispensed pearls of wisdom on content marketing tips and tricks while their listeners dined on an assortment of delicious breakfast treats. All-in-all, this “Be All in With Content Marketing” keynote delivered the goods that marketers can use to drive business when they get back to the office.

Booth 101

On the trade show floor, at booth No. 101, attendees were welcomed by a number of our content editors and salespeople for an inspiring run down of the services we offer, including everything from blog creation to social media management to white paper development. Besides giving attendees an overview of Content Boost’s services and best practices (for example, how we pair editors with certain accounts or how we go about the launch process), the team gave booth-goers some expert advice on where the content marketing space is headed and tactics they can use to take their business to the next level.

This and so much more pertinent evidence on today’s content marketing best practices were the deliverables at our biannual event, sponsored to provide a venue for the community of communications and technology buyers, sellers, resellers and manufacturers to network and discover emerging trends and solutions. Join us next time! We will be at the Miami Beach Convention Center from Jan. 27-30, 2015. Click here to register.